Our first guest post!
Confident Parenting
I am a mom to 3 children whom I adore. There is nothing that I wouldn’t do for them. When they cry and hurt, I want to pick them up and wipe their tears away. When they tell a joke and laugh like crazy, I want to giggle with them. I want to be there for my kids in whatever way they want me to be. But the confidence that I may have now didn’t always exist. After I had my first son many years ago I thought I didn’t want any more children. After I met my boyfriend (now husband), my attitude started to change. We got engaged a couple years after we had been dating and I was pregnant shortly after that. It was such an exciting time for us and we were both looking forward to what the future had in store for us. I think along the way, my older son was excited, but he was also very scared. For so long he was the only child, and all of my attention had been on him. Suddenly now he realized that there would be someone else that he had to share me with.
Before and after Ryder was born, I was scared. After all, I hadn’t done this in awhile and was definitely out of practice. AND things had changed so much! Every day, I was filled was so much joy but also fear of doing something wrong. How would I know he was hungry, how many times did I change him, what if something happened to him, what if I couldn’t hear him crying, and the list went on and on. I read so many books, and they all said something different. One book would say that sleeping with your baby was a bonding thing and then another would suggest that it causes SIDS. Another book indicated that ONLY breast milk was the best for your baby, while said breast milk was ideal but recognized that many couldn’t breast feed and to do what you could. It was overwhelming to say the least. But over time, my husband and I found our groove. We started listening to what felt right for us and our son. We listened to all of the advice we received, and made our own informed decisions. And you know what, nothing really bad happened!
By the time our daughter arrived (one year later), we felt like old pros! We knew about sterilizing the water for bottles, when to introduce solid foods, when they were strong enough to hold their own heads up, and when you could let them sleep through the night without having to feed them. We relaxed A LOT! People would still give advice, (even strangers in the grocery store) but at least now we didn’t feel like we needed to take it. Parenting is such a journey, full of bumps and holes along the way. The best part is the fun you have as you cruise/crawl/or ride over those bumps. That makes it all worthwhile. I know that I am a better parent because of those bumps anyways. At the best of times our house is chaos! It’s always messy, sometimes dinner isn’t ready, our yard could look a little better, it’s never quiet and I long for time in the bathroom alone. But I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s chaos, but it’s my chaos.
Written by Jessica, living and parenting her 3 children with her husband on Vancouver Island.
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